Note: I often receive questions either in my email or on the WordPL Facebook Page and try to answer them publicly so maximum people benefit from the response (hey it also reduces my answer time so that next time someone asks the same question I can just point them to this post )

Irum asked: Hey Salma, I’m trying to find out how to learn basic content writing for the web. Can you guide me please?

So Irum, and anyone else interested in the answer, here goes.

To become a web content writer, you basically need two skills:

1. you must be a voracious reader/learner of articles on the web and

2. you must be able to adapt your writing style for the web and constantly practice it

Let’s take a closer look at these two requirements.

How You Read on the Web

The more you read on the web, the more you’ll realize that you, along with everyone else, follow a certain pattern. Your eyes stay in certain parts of the page longer, you tend to skim and scan content more than actually read every single word (as you may perhaps in print), you get intimidated/bored by long pages of unbroken text and you tend to click links that interest you and which may take you several pages away from the page you’re on.

These and other characteristics of reading on the web have been well researched and documented by web usability expert Jakob Nielsen.

I’m going to summarize some of the findings for you here:

• Web readers typically scan the page in the rough shape of the letter “F”. That means our eyes travel down the length of the left column of the page and dart across the top right section (where the title usually is) and then skim and scan the rest of the content horizontally, perhaps staying a little longer at the sub-headings or pull out quotes breaking up the text.

• Web readers like to click on interesting links. Links that appear spammy or clearly irrelevant are usually ignored.
• Web readers like to read simple English. Since people accessing the web come from all walks of life with varying levels of comprehension, the average user is likely to stay and read if the writing is simple, free from jargon, not too lengthy and explains concepts and terms in a clear, simple way.
• Web readers love lists! They love articles that contain top 10 lists and how-to material presented in numbered list or bullet form simply because it’s easy to quickly scan and consume it
• Web readers will navigate away from your content if they don’t get the gist of it in the first line or the first paragraph (and sometimes from the title itself!)
• Web readers generally read text on screen 25% slower than they would in print

So how can you use these characteristics to become a web writer? Simple; we’ll just take the results presented and apply them to our writing.

How to Write for the Web

1. Write a Catchy Title

Since you now know that web readers read the title first, you’ll want to ensure that your web content’s title is catchy, accurate, promising and enticing. Consider these titles: “How to Bake a Cake” vs “How to Bake a Cake in 10 Minutes” vs “How to Bake a Chocolate Malt Cake in 10 Minutes that Kids will Love” Notice how each subsequent title offers more reasons for you to click on it; more benefits, more promise of good information.

The point of your title is two-fold: to get readers to want to read the content that follows and to give search engines something to index your page by. Notice how I’ve used the words “content writing for the web”, “web content writer” etc. throughout this post and in the titles and sub-headings – that’s so that search engines can find these terms in my content and index it so that anyone looking for web content writers will find us more easily.

2. Start with the Conclusion

This might sound like the opposite of what you learned in English essay-writing classes in school, but a long windy opening paragraph will NOT make your content appealing on the web. If it’s not appealing, it won’t be read. And the whole purpose of web content is to be read.

You absolutely must get to the point of your content immediately and then proceed convincingly from there to make your case, give further examples, and make your points. In the web content writing world, this is called the “inverted pyramid” style of writing. Main idea first, details later.

3. Make your Text Visually Appealing

Nowhere is this point more important than on the web. Books without pictures will still be read, but a web page without a single graphic is an eye-sore. And visual appeal need not mean complicated images, but simply good use of white space around your text. That means you MUST break up your text into small paragraphs of 5-7 lines each, use bullets and lists to present linear information, and use images that help illustrate your content.

You can go a few steps further and use charts, tables, flowcharts, info-graphics and other visual data to make your content look appealing to the web reader.

Another way to make your content visually appealing is to add descriptive sub-headings (as I have done in this blog post) – these aid your reader in navigating your content and help you put in keywords for better search engine positioning in strategic locations.

4. Include Hyperlinks!

Outbound hyperlinks (links going to other sites on the Internet) give your readers the option to read more on the subject and shows that you are confident about your research skills and have linked out to quality content. Inbound links (links to other pages on your website) also show readers that you are an authority on your subject and have written more valuable and related information on it.

When linking it is important to use anchor text (like this) rather than naked URLs (like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_text). This serves a dual purpose: anchor text links are prettier to look at within the document and provide a better reading experience and they also help in optimizing your content for search engines since links are one of the criteria search engines use to determine the relevancy or otherwise of your content.

Good quality and well-researched links give your readers a quality product and they will appreciate the fact that they can get all pertinent information from one complete document.

5. Use Simple Grade 7 English

I don’t know how many of you have heard of the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test, but it’s a test built into MS Word that gauges the difficulty level of English you’ve written. A high score of 90-100 signifies that your text can be understood by the average 7^th grader, and lower scores mean the text is understood by those with higher learning degrees.

For general web articles, you should aim to write for the typical 7^th – 9^th grader. Obviously this requirement will vary according to your client, their audience and the technical nature or otherwise of the topic.

In general, a good principle to follow is to assume a cursory knowledge of the subject matter and explain and elaborate for the layperson. For example, this post is written for people looking to get started with web content writing, so I’m assuming they already have some idea of what web writing is.

Also, it is extremely important in web content to write directly to your audience. Assume that you are talking and explaining to some one person and write the article as though for them. For example, here I’m assuming that I’m writing to Irum to answer her query. This means using first person (“I”) and second person (“you”) liberally in your content.

Finally, the purpose of most web writing is to encourage users to take certain action or to think in a certain way; for that reason the tone of your writing should be active, enthusiastic and encouraging. There is no room for passive sentences in writing for the web.

Re-Cap of Web Writing Essentials

So to quickly re-cap, here’s the essence of what a page written for the web should contain:

1. Catchy title with keywords
2. Starts off strong with the main idea of the article and proceeds convincingly from there
3. Has visual appeal using sub-headings, lists, images, graphics and white space
4. Contains both outbound and inbound hyperlinks with anchor text
5. Is written in a natural, conversational style of writing with active voice

Once the above principles are applied see how an otherwise mundane piece of text comes alive on your web screen (this example taken from useit.com):

If you’ve mastered these, check out some advanced strategies for writing for the web.

Resources to Learn Web Content Writing

As we covered earlier, writing well is all about reading a lot and writing a lot. So here I’m going to suggest some blogs that you should check out to get started on that reading list. Pick one or two from this list that resonate with you and subscribe to them; there’s tons of great content in them to help you become a better web content writer!

Copyblogger: Copyblogger is one of the best places to start to learn how to write persuasively. Their tutorial on headline writing skills is one of the most comprehensive ones I’ve seen with some great examples. If you’re interested in specializing as a copywriter, their 10 Steps to Effective Copywriting is an awesome starting point.

Aliventures: Ali Luke is a writing coach and professional paid blogger. Check out her blog Aliventures for some great samples on how to write for the web.

AllFreelanceWriting: Jennifer Mattern and her AllFreelanceWriting team excel at all topics related to writing and entrepreneurship; their no-BS approach is a good guide for aspiring web writers.

FabFreelanceWriting: Angela Booth’s Fab Freelance Writing blog offers handy tips, resources and highly motivating articles to help you get started with writing for the web.

AboutFreelanceWriting: And finally Anne Wayman’s AboutFreelanceWriting is not only a great resource for learning to write but also a handy guide to finding the best paying jobs for freelance writers.

Finally, let me know in the comments section what your tips are for writing better web content. Would love to hear from you!

As a freelance writer, it’s often tempting to think of yourself as being able to do all kinds of writing equally well. So what if you got your start in technical writing, you wonder how hard can it be to break into the world of copywriting? Or vice versa.

The reality, however, is that each type of writing takes a unique skill set, and while you can certainly move from one specialty to another with as much ease as you would shift from one hand to another if you were ambidextrous, you still need to be aware of the different types of skills required for different types of writings.

In this post we’re going to discuss the oft-confused worlds of blog writing versus article writing. They sound similar enough – after all if you can put together 300-500 words of coherent text in an article, why can’t you do the same for a blog, right? While some principles of writing for the web apply to both blogs and articles, there are some crucial differences too.

So to help you determine whether you are an article writer or a blogger, here’s my quick checklist of what I think the two entail:

So there you have it. My personal opinion of what differentiates a blog from an article. When I correspond with clients, I make sure to tell them exactly what kind of an article or blog they’ll receive. If it’s a blog project, I make sure I tell them it will be written in a conversational tone, contain author viewpoints, etc. If it’s an article project, I let them know about our emphasis on factual data collection, research and source citations. I think it helps make them feel secure that I know exactly what kind of writing they can expect from us.

Your turn. Please add to my checklist above anything pertinent you can think of that differentiates the two; I’m sure I’ve missed some points! How do you differentiate between a blog and an article? Tell us!

To start 2011 right, I am very happy to bring to you my first interview with someone who embodies the spirit of action in all she does – Fareen Effendi. This remarkable woman, who is a mother & a wife, heard about freelancing opportunities from me in August 2010 and a month and half later was on her way with her first international client. In just three months, she’s made over $3000 just from freelance writing clients! With her dedication and focused approach, she is definitely going to go far and I wish her all the success! Read on to learn more about what powers Fareen and what kind of a mind-set is needed to thrive as an online entrepreneur.

1. When did you start freelancing?

In August, I attended a session through Weldon Moms where the guest speaker was none other than Salma Jafri.  Ripe with the need to move into something that offered me freedom and flexibility, yet afforded me the opportunity to earn all the same, the session sparked within me the desire to begin immediately.  At that time, between my day job and managing three small kids’ school rounds, ‘immediately’ ended up being a month a half later.  So, one late evening in mid-September in 2010 I sat down to sign up with Elance.

Right about the same time, I began to chronicle my freelancing journey on my blog: http://fareenswow.blogspot.com

2. Why did you choose Elance as your freelance marketplace of choice?

What attracted me to Elance was mainly the platform’s long-standing history (having been in existence for at least a decade, if not more) and the site’s inclusion of things like Escrow payments, a dispute-resolution program and other things that were well-thought out.  The other thing is that, of all the freelancing websites and forums out there, Elance is the one best suited for the global marketplace in my opinion.

3. How did you find the getting started process (making a profile, choosing membership, etc)? Was it intuitive or complicated?

I LOVED the initial set-up process.  I mean, who doesn’t enjoy tooting their own horn to some degree?  So to be able to outline my skills and showcase my talents was enjoyable, to say the least.  I didn’t just do it over night either.  I took my time, studied the site, went through the profiles of successful providers to see where the edge was in their profiles, read each and every relevant post on the website’s forum, browsed through the Elance blog and of course went through the list of FAQs on the site as well.  Only THEN did I feel ready and able to assemble an effective profile that I knew would do justice to my abilities.

4. What kind of projects do you wish to do as a freelancer?

This changes regularly.  When I first began just a few months ago, all I wanted was to land that first job.  Three projects later, I began to realize that not only was I valuable to buyers on Elance but I was also providing them an invaluable service at very low rates – so I upped the ante and began to charge more, a lot more.  To my surprise, the projects evolved and the pay rates increased along with it.  To answer specifically, at first I was only doing article writing – then soon after I ventured into some viral marketing, blog writing, business writing and web copy.  Now, I’ve slowly begun heading into white papers, academic reports as well as some book editing and I’ve added an off-site team member to expand into some graphic design to go along with some of my projects.

5. How do you differentiate yourself/your services in the competitive international market?

Elance is no different than having a regular store front in a shopping mall.  You own a business.  You can either succeed, depending on your marketing techniques, or fade into the background if you are not careful.  When it comes to my business, whether online with Elance or otherwise, I simply remain true to myself and my abilities.  I try to put forth the ‘real me’ with each client, never over-selling but usually willing to go the extra mile.  The key is to remain professional, do your very best in everything you take on, keep an open and honest rapport with your clientele and deliver what you promise.

6. How much are you currently earning monthly in freelancing income?

This is always a fun question – because this, too, is ever-evolving.  My first two weeks, I earned zip.  In fact, the investment I made set me back a few bucks.  But with the first job and ever since, I’ve been seeing a steadily rising income of anywhere from $1000-$1200 per month – working part time.

7. How much do you expect to be earning/would prefer to earn in 6 months’ time?

Well, based on the strategy I’m following I expect to see some exponential growth which by my estimate would mean that by the end of June 2011 I hope to have earned about $12-$14k.

8. Do you believe freelancers can earn just as much or more than a typical office job?

Yes, I do but it would take a great deal of discipline and LOTS of sacrifice.  I remember Salma saying on that very first day that success on Elance doesn’t come without hard work.  This is so true!  To work as a freelancer has some risks involved but if you play your cards right and strategize effectively, it can be done.  I have a friend who has earned over $50k this past year but not without working around the clock and sacrificing many other things in life.  For now, that’s not my agenda.

9. Your top 3 tips for freelancing success?

1. Believe in yourself and your abilities.  If you are confident, people are confident in you!

2. Never accept anything less than perfection from yourself.  Never.

3. Put your heart and soul into it and realize that this is your business. Treat it like that, and you will find success.

Note from Salma: Fareen is one of those people who can take an idea, research it and follow it to its logical (and successful) conclusion. For those of you interested in gaining a spark about the possibilities, please read my post about how to start an online business. For those wishing for a little more hand-holding, check out my course tailor-made just for you, called Freelance with Elance. We’re gearing up for the Jan session, so pre-register now!

Please note this post contains affiliate links (that’s a good thing cause I’m promoting a product I’ve used, loved and made mandatory reading for my team of writers!)

Web content writers and copywriters can make a really great full-time income on the internet. The US Dept of Labor in conjunction with O*Net – The Occupational Information Network conservatively estimates that copywriters can earn $50,000+ per year. I personally know freelance writers who charge $100-$300 per hour.

So the question is: are you ready to make big bucks as an online writer? What are the essentials you need to know to start a writing career or step up an existing writing career a couple of notches?

In her ebook, How to Write Great Copy for the Web, author Donna Spencer (backed by the uber-respectable Rockable Press & FreelanceSwitch) outlines a practical, easy-to-do-and-follow strategy for establishing a niche as a web content writer/copy writer. If you’ve been looking for a step-by-step guide filled with useful, practical information, I highly recommend reading her book.

Here’s what she covers in How to Write Great Copy for the Web:

• Print vs Web: Why writing for the web is different than any other medium (including print). She uses eye-tracking studies and non-linear reading techniques to illustrate her point.
• Page Element: A list of web page features that facilitate and optimize the online reading experience. Examples include page layouts, headings and types, lists and how-to articles, box quotes and hyperlink usage.
• Persuasive Writing: How to write copy that is meant to persuade readers to buy or take specific action. This type of writing is essential if you are selling your own or a client’s products or if you are an affiliate marketer. Buyers pay extremely well for sales writing that is not sleazy, yet makes the sale by making a connection with the buyer. Words can do that. Your words. In the book, Donna shows you how to write persuasively for your audience so that your copy speaks to directly to them. She discusses the principles of writing concise (who has the time to read pages!) yet highly emotive copy to make the sale.
• Authentic Writing: A big part of web writing is to be original. In the book, the author shows you how to write in first and second person without appearing biased or prejudiced. You will learn to write copy that is genuine because that’s what readers want to see.
• Kinds of Web Page Copy: Donna discusses at great length typical web pages and the copy that should ideally go on them. Want to learn how to write the perfect About Us page? Need to know what should go on the Home Page of your (or a client’s) website? It’s all here in this book, presented with examples of actual websites Donna has worked on and results achieved as a direct result of the written copy.
• How to Write a Call to Action: Exceptional web copy is incomplete without a clear and specific call to action (CTA). The book shows you what kind of statements to use to close the deal and where to place them for maximum effect!
• SEO Baby!: The book also has a section on writing for search engines. SEO knowledge is integral to writing web content because every business needs its content to be featured as high in search results as possible in order to attract relevant and targeted traffic to its website. Although I personally feel this section could have been expanded upon, Donna still does a great job outlining the basics (which we so often forget!) and introducing the novice to page elements that are crucial for SEO.

If you are someone looking to join the internet writing community and need a starter guide, How to Write Great Copy for the Web is the perfect starting point. If you already have a few clients under your belt or have written material for your own site with moderate results, this book will show you some simple techniques to up your game. According to the Pareto Principle 80% of your income is generated from 20% of your tasks. Become efficient at what you truly love and make that 20% really work for you. If you love to write, learn how to write better using this book.

Why wait? If you’re convinced you want to read this book and benefit from Donna Spencer’s advice, you can download it immediately for just $15 and start reading it right now! Productivity gurus always tell you to take the first step, no matter how small, immediately. NOW. So if you’ve decided that you want to earn a healthy income writing for the web, then click here to download now!

Remember to leave a comment once you’ve read the book How to Write Great Copy for the Web so that others wanting to read may benefit from your review!

The other day I had a short twitter exchange with Chris Brogan regarding the new book by Michael Pollan called Food Rules. In the book, Pollen offers simple techniques for eating right with the overall aim of curtailing America’s health care crises.

Here’s the verbatim twitter exchange:

chrisbrogan: Wow. Want some simple rules for eating? – http://bit.ly/5bqjYe
salmajafri: a little too simplistic, no? like the ones abt kids eating their vegs if in front of TV-my 2yr-old doesnt fall into that trap!
chrisbrogan: I love simplistic. Complex is where I fall off.
salmajafri: true but simple to a point is good. gross over-generalizations tend to become inaccurate.

Although I’m sure Chris meant to imply “simple” instead of “simplistic”, I’m amazed how many people actually deliberately use the word simplistic.

So what’s the difference? Aren’t they just one and the same thing? Well, no! And this might come as a surprise to some people.

Here’s a definition of “simple” from the Merrium-Webster dictionary:
“readily understood or performed[simple directions][the adjustment was simple to make]“

And now here’s a definition of “simplistic” from the same dictionary:
“of, relating to, or characterized by simplism” where a search for simplisim reveals “the act or an instance of oversimplifying; especially : the reduction of a problem to a false simplicity by ignoring complicating factors”

Often people seem to think the term “simplistic” is good! I’ve seen variations from an email received for a job stating “Hi, I’m a simplistic writer” to a newspaper reviewer positively commenting on a book by saying “the author has a very simplistic style”. Gosh, simplistic has negative connotations people!

Now don’t get me wrong; I’m all for simple. After all I love speed-reading, I love relevant lists, I love getting to the bottom line quickly and I love writing targeted web content and focused SEO articles that get to the point succinctly. But turns out, you can sometimes go overboard on the simplicity wagon and be simple to the point of being ridiculous and inaccurate.

After all, wasn’t it Einstein who said “Make things as simple as you can, but no simpler”?

What does that mean exactly? How can you go beyond simple into simplistic and inaccurate? And what is simplicity?

A web quote I found (I’ve adapted it a bit) phrases it perfectly by saying: “Simplicity is knowing when one more word would be too many, and one less word would be too few. But it’s not just knowing the right number of words, it’s also knowing which words are right, and how to arrange them.”

Therefore, simplicity implies the right combinations presented in an easy to understand, yet factual manner.

When you write for the web, your aim should be to present information in as simple a manner as possible without losing meaning and context. When writing web content, for example, being simple means getting the point across with compelling, thought-provoking words which are also a true reflection of the fact. Over-simplifying means that you’re just deleting important and relevant facts.

The beauty of simplicity is that it’s so intrinsically complex, yet so easy to understand. Want an example? You! That’s right; human beings are the most complex organisms, yet we have the simplest desires: a parent’s need to protect their child, a person’s will to survive, our collective need to evolve. These things are practically hard-wired into our system. And that’s the beauty of simplicity

Most businesses need articles for the web written to help their company make more money. One of the ways their business makes money is by directing relevant and targeted traffic to their website.

What is Relevant and Targeted Traffic?

There are millions if not billions of people surfing the net, actively searching for content online. They typically use a search engine to find the information they seek. Not every internet users wants what a particular company has to sell. And businesses don’t necessarily want uninterested people coming to their site. Instead businesses want to attract only those people who are already interested and have a need for that business’s products or services. In other words, they only want to attract relevant and targeted users to their website who are genuinely interested in their offer.

For example, a company selling lawn mowers is not interested in having apartment dwellers reach its website. Most people looking to buy lawn mowers live in their own house, not a rented apartment, and have a lawn which needs to be mowed. Geographically, lawn mower firms will be targeting suburbia more compared to city dwellers.

Therefore it’s important for the business to get those customers to its site who are interested in the products it is selling. It will want all those people who type in search queries like “need to buy lawn mower” or “which is the best lawn mower to buy” to reach its website.

Here is where keywords come in.

What are Keywords?

Keywords may be a single word or a phrase typed into a search engine to yield search results. Typically a web user clicks on a search result (or many results) to find out more information about the issue he is concerned about.

Since you use the web, you already know that you typically click links only on the first page of search engine results. Every company wants to appear on the first page search results to maximize visibility and clicks.

In order to do this, they use a strategy called “search engine optimization” or SEO.

What is SEO?

SEO is the art and science of increasing the chances of having your website indexed and ranked high on search engine results. There are many variables that determine search rank, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll consider “keyword content” to be the primary factor.

Writing SEO content means that you put in those keyword phrases in your content that a user is most likely to be searching for when he types in a search query.

Luckily most of the guesswork has been taken out of keywords by tools such as Google AdWord’s Keyword Research Tool and Wordtracker. These tools help you determine the most-searched for keywords around the globe and revolving around a particular topic.

So if you type in “lawn mower” in Google’s tool, you’ll get results like “electric lawn mower” and “lawn mower repair” which will in turn help you choose the right keywords to use on your site to attract the right clientele. They will also tell you how many people are searching for that keyword, so for our example, electric lawn mower has 90,000 global monthly searches, while lawn mower repair has 110,000 global monthly searches.

So how does all this pertain to writing for the web?

Writing for the Web Means Writing SEO Content

In writing for the web, you need to know how to incorporate keywords into your writing in such a way that the article flows smoothly while making good use of the keywords that you have identified as crucial to your content. This is called SEO-enriched content.

Some clients might have a direct need for SEO articles, while others might simply need web-friendly articles.

What are Web-friendly Articles?

The web is an active medium (as opposed to TV or print where you sit back and watch/read). On the web you need to actively search for content, click on content, and follow links and so on. Web readers are impatient, want content now, and will click away quickly if they don’t find what they’re looking for on your site.

Therefore web-friendly writing needs to be structured in a way so it is fast to scan and read, gets the main points across quickly and succinctly, and is interesting enough to hold the reader’s attention.

The main characteristics of an article written for the web are:

• Gets to the point quickly and without preamble
• Is easy to scan and easy to read
• Has a catchy SEO title, subtitle and subheading
• Contains bullets and numbered lists where relevant
• Is written in an active and energizing tone rather than a passive, tired one
• Evokes a desired reaction or action from its readers

Anyone looking to become a freelance writer on the web must know how to write articles for the web. It’s a whole new medium which allows expression in direct active tones, almost simulating an actual face-to-face conversation.

Are you just learning to write for the web – if so did this little tutorial help you to understand the basics? Share your thoughts below.

Writing for Suite101 is a long term game plan: one that can result in a nice steady income stream coming to you even when you stop writing. Suite allows you to earn residual income from your articles based on Google AdSense revenue. Each time someone clicks on an ad that shows up with your article, you earn.

The three main advantages often discussed about Suite are:

• They have excellent standards (two test projects required for entry);
• Higher than average revenue payouts ($3.90 per 1000 page views on average according to Suite’s Editor-in-Chief Colin Smith); and
• Great editorial support (every article is reviewed by an experienced editor)

But apart from these basic reasons, here are some more nuggets of information which make Suite a good place to write for the long term.

You Learn to Write for the Web

Suite is hands down an excellent place to learn to write for the web, which in turn will benefit you in all areas of your writing. You can experiment with different keyword combinations and see results within 24 hours on how your tweaking affects your page views and revenue. You learn the importance of keyword placement and density along with the benefits of structuring your article for an online audience, all of which results in higher page views and therefore the potential to earn more from each article. At Suite you also learn to write in a journalistic style versus a blogging style, which can be very useful for knowing how to write unbiased articles, interviews, reviews, etc with proper citations and references. New to SEO writing? Start at Suite – that’s what I did.

Use Suite to Build and Promote your Written Work

Suite provides a great place to showcase your writing to the world and helps you build an online portfolio – I’ve directed many a client there! Suite also gets lots of Google juice so if you write with carefully-chosen keywords you have every chance of seeing your name and your article on Google’s first page of search results – an impressive thing to tell your other clients!

Suite Wants to Promote You

From the editor and assistant editor down to the contributing writers, everyone will re-tweet, comment on your post, write out a thoughtful answer to your queries, and forward your article to their friends when relevant. You can promote yourself and your work, sure, but Suite does a great job of promoting you! The Suite staff and team will encourage you on all your accomplishments, big or small. Just join the official Twitter profile (@suite101) to join and see for yourself.

Suite Forums are Friendly, Supportive and Chock-full of Insightful Ideas

You get to be part of a supportive, friendly writers’ community to whom you can pitch your website, article, story, etc to and who will give you their honest feedback. Starting a new website and need traffic? Want to know which freelance sites are the best? The answers all lurk in Suite’s forums You can learn about some of the best ways to make money online or the best tools for writers thanks to the active community which is eager to share their experiences.

Suite Allows you Creative Freedom and Control over your Published Works

Your article belongs to you, simple as that. All rights reserved. You can re-publish your Suite articles in print, and you can re-publish your Suite articles online after one year of the article post date. Suite lets you write in any category and any topic of your choosing so there’s a lot of creative freedom there. Writing articles sometimes helps to flesh out story ideas and gauge reader responses; articles can literally be used as a sounding board for creative ideas.

Suite Reduces Writer Isolation

Being a work at home freelancer can get lonesome at times; the suite community does a lot to assuage that isolation and makes you feel you’re not alone in the big (bad) world of freelance writing. So whether you want to talk about your cat or your work at home style, there’s a group of friendly like-minded people just waiting to connect with you.

Some Added Benefits Which Seal the Deal

• Suite gives you the chance to earn up-front cash via  monthly contests; they’re working on making the contests open to international writers soon.
• Suite will promote you to a Feature Writer (FW) position (if available in your choice of category) if you meet their standards; the position comes with a nice little bonus and your own Suite blog. FW positions also add credibility and authority to your online portfolio.
• Minimum quota is light; 10 articles in 3 months is easily doable, even for the busiest person
• They accept writers from all over the world; which was a big factor for me!

Although I don’t have many articles up on Suite as of writing this post, nor do I have a FW position under my belt (yet), the rewards for me have mainly come through community encouragement, motivation and support and through learning to write for the web (with added SEO tricks and tips thrown in). Another plus for me is the exposure it gives me when I pitch to new clients, especially if I’ve written articles in their niche. Suite writers are known to be offered book deals, long-term article assignments, interview opportunities and much more.

Any way you look at it, Suite offers you a great way to earn while you learn!

Want to start writing for Suite and need some help? Already a Suite writer and want to share your experience. Go ahead and share below.